Circumstantial Evidence
by raisintorte
Summary: Laura wears Rodney's tshirt to girl's poker night. [McKayCadman, Spoilers through Duet]. This is set in the same 'verse as Habit Routine Practice.


**Pairing:** McKay/Cadman  
**Spoilers:** Through Duet  
**Summary:** Laura wears Rodney's t-shirt to girl's poker night.  
**A/N:** This is set post Habit; Routine Practice, it's not a sequel but it is in the same 'verse. Thanks to **kate98** for the speedy beta. :-)

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**Circumstantial evidence.**_Evidence based on inference and not on personal knowledge or observation._ Blacks Law Dictionary 576 (7th ed. 1999).

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"Laura, is that Rodney's shirt you're wearing?" Katie Brown gave Laura a measured look as she walked into girl's poker night. 

Laura looked down at the _Mr. Fantastic_ shirt she was wearing and grimaced. "Umm, no. It's mine ."

"Phhh, right." Katie rolled her eyes and sat down in her seat. Laura could tell no one in the room believed her.

"It is! What, you guys don't think I'm 'geek' enough to have a superhero shirt? It's mine!" Laura walked over to the table and set down her currency, which once again included some of Rodney's chocolate.

"Fine, you say it's your shirt? What comic is Mr. Fantastic from?" Simpson asked, grinning evilly.

Laura stopped to think, knowing she had the deer in the headlights expression on her face.

"He's a superhero, he's in that comic, with those other superheroes, and they umm, they fight crime!" Laura said, feeling rather proud of herself for getting that much. She knew she should have paid better attention when Rodney put that movie on the other night, but she had been so tired from work she fell asleep during the credits. Rodney had been sweet enough not to wake her up. He had even attempted to carry her to bed so she could get more sleep, but he tripped over a stack of books and almost dropped her.

"Yes, we've established that you know he's a superhero, but what comic is he from?" Simpson smiled as she attempted to back Laura further into a corner.

"I don't know! I thought it looked cool, and it was a superhero shirt, so I bought it. I didn't know I had to know the origin of all of my clothing in order to wear it around here!" Laura tried to huff her way out of this conversation but she knew no one in the room was buying it.

Simpson looked like she was about to say something else, but thankfully Dr. Weir took pity on her.

"Okay, ladies, that's enough hassling of poor Lieutenant Cadman for one night. Let's move on to what we came here for, the poker!" Elizabeth grinned and started shuffling the cards like professional dealer.

"Elizabeth – wow, it seems weird to call you that," Katie said. "Half the fun of girl's poker night is gossiping about guys and trying to get Laura to admit that she is more than 'just friends' with Rodney. We want all of the girly details. I mean I've only kissed the guy and that was WOW. We want the juicy parts!" Simpson and Miko nodded in agreement at first and then looking puzzled because Kate, Elizabeth, and Laura were all laughing hysterically.

"What? What's so funny?" Katie looked rather confused.

Elizabeth, Kate, and Laura had all started laughing when Katie mentioned kissing Rodney, as all three knew it was technically Laura who had kissed Katie, but none of them were about to let her in on that little secret.

"Guys! Rodney and I _are just friends_! Yes, I happen to sleep over every now and again, but we are **not** in a romantic relationship. Now, I promised him I would win him some of Simpson's mint chocolates, so let's play! Dr. Weir, I mean Elizabeth, looks like she's ready to try to hustle us." Laura anted her first chocolate bar into the center of the table, hoping everyone would move on and drop the subject of her and Rodney.

"Okay, Laura, we'll drop it. We can all pretend that you are trying to win chocolate for your 'friend' Rodney, and ignore the fact that you just anted up with something I know came from his personal stock, the stock I'm sure he shares with all of this 'friends,' though from personal experience I know he'll bite your head off if you come near it in his lab," Simpson said in her most placating voice.

And with that Laura had reached her limit of Rodney teasing for the night, and she knew just the way to get them to drop it. Spending lots of time with Rodney did have its perks. He really did know something about everyone.

"First, did you seriously just use air quotes? What are you twelve? Second, you want to play that game? Let's talk about how it took you five hours to finish that transporter repair with Kavanaugh on the South Pier, when according to my sources any reasonable scientist could have finished the same repair in less than two hours. What were you doing during those other three hours? And Katie, I would wipe that smile off your face. Rumor has it both you and Dr. Parrish came back from an off world mission last week with the Pegasus version of poison ivy in some very unique places. Shall we talk about that? Right, that's what I thought. Anyone else have anything they want to add or talk about?" Laura grinned as she had effectively shut down Katie and Simpson, and from the looks on their faces showed they knew it. Elizabeth, Miko, and Kate were giggling.

"Alright, I'm dealing, let's play. Though I will have to say, from my personal perspective, that last outburst was more telling about your relationship with Rodney than any tee shirt, Laura. You might want to watch just how much of Dr. McKay you let rub off on you," Elizabeth said serenely as she dealt the first hand. Laura was too shocked to even respond. While she did have some interesting gossip on Dr. Weir and a certain Czech scientist, she didn't think it was in her best interest to blackmail her boss into silence.

It was Kate who broke the silence and got the conversation going again. "So . . . have you guys heard the latest gossip about Teyla and Ronon? Lorne told me that she actually tried to throw him off . . ."

Laura looked at her cards and thought about the shirt. She hadn't worn it on purpose or to cause a stir; she hadn't really thought about it one way or the other. She had been changing after her shift and it just happened be what was handy. Laura and Rodney still didn't talk about what was going on, or what their 'relationship' was, but she didn't need, or really want to – she was perfectly content with the status quo. If she got hassled a bit here and there for it, it was worth it.

Besides, she liked his Mr. Fantastic shirt, so this probably wouldn't be the last time she wore it around base. However, for future reference she probably should ask Rodney what comic he was from to avoid any more embarrassing questions.


End file.
